A hard start
by Catha85
Summary: Maeve is defeated and the island is at peace since almost 3 years. But a new chapter is going to start..
1. Chapter 1

I don't own any character. It's all Saban…. This is my first little story. Trying to get more out, maybe even a bigger one. But let's starts with that one. The next and finally chapter is in work

„ Arhg, i can't… i can't push any more" Deirdre screams at the druid in front of her and the maid standing next to him. Perls of sweat are running down her face.

„ You can…. you need to…" Rohan trys to encourage his wife while still holding her hand and stroking it with his thumb. His hand hurt very much, Deidre had squeezed it hard a few times, but he didn't care about it. Her pain was much more hurting than his hand right now. With his free hand he takes a little towel and wipe away the sweat from her forehead.

Deirdre pause for a moment, breathing hard. As she feels another wave of pain coming, she collects all the energy she still have somewhere in her body, presses Rohans hand hard and push one more time, before she falls back at the pillow.

Rohan watches his wife and as she was about to finished this, he feels the hard press on his hand. He could hardly hold back a few tears, as suddenly everyone hears the scream of a baby. He take a short look at this former teacher, holding the baby, before he places his arm behind the back fallen Deirdre to comfort her a bit.

Heavily breathing the newborn mother lean again his chest, unable to say much.

„ Congrats you two, it's a girl" the old druid look at them, before he handed the baby to the maid, which starts to wash and wrap it into a little blanket. Still smiling she walks over to the bed and watch at Deidre.

Deirdre open her eyes and a smile escape her lips as she watched her baby girl in front of her. „Can you ...hold her, i can't…" she looks at her husband weakly. With a nod Rohan slowly remove his arm from her and take the baby, his daughter.

„ Are you alright your highness?" Cathbad looks at her worried before he rushes to the other free side of the bed. He placed a hand on her forehead and then on her cheek. „ You are hot, i will get you something to recover and find some sleep. This was hard work i know" he adds on and turn to Rohan and the maid. „ Can we have a few minutes, i guess i can do the rest here all alone. I will call you when we are done."

Rohan watches the little girl in his hands, but one ear was with his wife and Cathbad. He looks worried at the old man but he just point at the door. A bit confused he follows the maid outside. „ Some woman can get ill, especially after their first child" the maid tells him „ but she is strong, she will be better soon"

„ Hopefully" Rohan whispers while still watching his daughter. The little girl wrinkle her forehead a bit before she relax again and fall back to sleep. Watching his makes him smile and start to gently rocking her.

„ Hey, who do we have her" he hears familiar voices behind him and as he turns arround he spots his friends, Angus, Ivar and Garett. All of them doing a little bow in front of the little newborn before they look at their leader. „ Congratulations daddy" Angus slap him on his back with a laugh. „ Yeah, congrats, how did everything going? Is Deirdre alright?" Ivar falls in.

Rohans smile disappear and his face becomes worried again. „ I am not sure, she is weak and seems like she has fever. The maid told me that his can be normal, but i don't know..." he sighs

„ She will be fine, you know how stubborn she is. She won't let the kid alone with us" Angus grin, trying to cheer him up.

„ You mean, with you" Garett add on and Angus just wink at him. „ Someone need to show her all the tricks" Angus comments.

„oh i can imagine" a voice behind him let him freeze for a moment. Cathbad was back and pass the knights. He hands Rohan a little bottle. „ the half now, the other half later on. And give her something to drink when ever she is awake" he instructed his former apprentice.

„ i will do thanks" Rohan answers. As he sees the bottle he looks up for the maid which has been in the background while the knights are talking. „ Can you please take care of her, i will check on you two as fast as i can" he looks at the woman and hand her the bundle.

„ No worries, she is in good hands. Take the time you need" she answers and and leave.

Rohan watches after her and swallow hard. This wasn't exactly what he thought of for this day... Then he graps the bottle from Cathbad.

Cathbad nod back and turn arround to leave and so does his friends „ You know where we are, if you need us" Ivar take one last look at Ronan before the follows the druid.

Rohan looks after his friends before he walks back in his and Deirdres bedroom. The princess seems to be asleep, lying on her side, her face towards him. He cross the room and knee down on the bed next to Deirdre. With his free hand he carefully stroke her cheek, trying to get her awake so far that she would be able to drink. As she slowly open her eyes he hold out the bottle to her mouth. „ Just a few sips, then you can get back to sleep" Ronan whisper at her, taking her head in his palm to comfort her and slowly the princess starts drinking like he told her to.

As she was done, he feels her hand on his arm, her skin was pale and ice cold. „ Rohan… i…."

„ shshsh, our baby is fine and i am there, there is nothing you need to worried about" he look down at her and continue to stroke her cheek with his thumb till she has closed her eyes again. As she was asleep he took her hand from his arm and placed it on the bed, but didn't let it go. Her hand was still cold and even after minutes in his hand, it didn't start to get warm. He looks arround, but the window was closed and the fireplace still working. There is no reason while she should be freezing so much.

Suddenly he feels a movement in his hand and as he looks all over the bed, he sees his wife shaking. „ Hey, hey, don't do that to me" Rohan almost screams as he jumps up. He walks over to the wardrobe and get some more covers, before heading back to the bed, he leaves room to call out for this friend „ Can someone please get Cathbad, something is wrong her!"

Back in the room he throws the covers over Deirdre as he heard footsteps, so he turns arround just to face his old master. „ Cathbad, she is cold and shaken, something isn't right"

The old druid looks from Rohan to Deirdre and walks over to her bed. He look at the shaken princess and feel her forehead again. „ That's kind of ague. We need to get her warm and let her get some more rest" I says and looks at Rohan „ I am sorry, but thats all we can do. Giving birth is hard work and her body needs to rest".

Rohan looks at him, scared as hell. „ Could she…. What is he worst thing that can happen?"

Cathbad sigh and look at the young woman. „ Hard to say, some woman getting better and some of them not"

Rohan stare at Cathbad for a moment. This can't be true…


	2. Chapter 2

The Mystic Knight of fire feels like he is fallen, fallen and no ground to catch him. He can't lose Deirdre, not after all they have going throught… this can't just happen.

Cathbad walks in front of him and place on hand on his shoulder. „ If she will make it throught this day and the night, then the hardest part is done." he tells him, also worried and with a nod he leaves the room.

Rohan nod at his former master before he head back to the bed and softly touch Deirdres hand, still cold, still shaking. He looks arround, there must be something more he could do. His look stops at the fireplace, the fire is still burning but not for much longer. He crosses the room and put some more wood in it. As he stands up he sees the flames becoming bigger slowly. I can't wait, he mumbles and grap his sword from the corner, holding it into the place and send a big fireball in here. He sighs a moment in relief as he sees he whole wooden burning.

He place the sword back in the corner and walk back to the bed. Suddenly it hits him... He undone his boots and his vest and lift the cover to lay down next to his princess. Face to face.

Slowly his arm wanders from under her head to her back and so he was able the wrap both arms arround her and pull her closer. „ don't leave me" he whispers, which almost sounds like he would start begging. Rubbing her back, he looks down at her and did the only thing he could do, waiting.

He has no clue how long it has been taken as she slowly stops shaking, but her breathing was still shallow. He pulls her a bit away, seeing if she might be a get awake to drink something., but she was still in a deep sleeps, so he decided to let her sleep and in that minute he feels his eyes becoming heavy.

_A few hours later_

A squeak comes to his ear, first of all he wasn't sure but he could hear someone walking arround him. His eyes open already in shock, but then he spots Cathbad on his bedside. „ Sorry, It's just me" he tries to explain as he sees the look on Rohans face. „ How is she doing?"

„ I don't know, but she has stopped shaking... what time is it?" Rohan answers a bit confused. He didn't mean to fall alseep. „ How ist he baby?"

„ Slow down Rohan, the baby is fine, the maids are with him. And we have almost evening. Did you get her the other half of the bottle yet?" the druid looks at him.

„ No, seems like i was fallen asleep, " Rohan tell the druid, a bit ashamed, before he slowly sit up a bit and reach out to the bottle on the little cupboard next to the bed. Like last time he carefully stroke Deirdres cheek to wake her up. This time she opens her eyes a bit more. Her eyes were more clear then last time but she still looks tired. She sees the bottle Rohan was holding out to her and slowly open her mouth to drink. As she was done, she looks at Rohan and also glance arround the room.

„She is fine, you can see her after you have slept a bit more" Rohan looks at her tenderly but clear. „ Do you you want some water?"

Deirdre look up at him and nod. So Rohan carefully let go of her and stand up. „ Get her something, i will check on the stitches „ Cathbad looks at him and so Rohan leave the room. Outside he almost runs into the king. „ Oh sorry, i..." but the King cut him off. „ It's fine, how is she?" he looks at him worried and Rohan can see the pain in his eyes. He knows the king would be heart broken, if he would ever lose his only daugther.

„Cathbad is checking on her, but she wants some water, so i guess she is a bit better" Rohan tries to calm him down.

The king sighs and watch Draganta for a moment „ Ok, get the water and tell me when the situation is changing, no matter which time"

„ Sure i will" Rohan nod before he headed to the kitchen and get the water. As he enters the bedroom again he sees Cathbad at the head of the bed, feeling Deirdres forehead. „ How is she?"

„ The fever is still high, but the rest seems good. The stitches are fine and her body is warm again. But i still can't made any promises" the druid mumbles as he walks over to the door. „ I will be back in the morning and of course i am there if the situation will change during the night"

Rohan looks after him for a moment before he headed to his wife. He place the water next to the little bottle and sit down on the bed. Deirdre slowly lift her head to look up at him. „ Ok, then let us bring some more liqiud into you" Rohan tells her and carefully help her to sit or at least bring her head into a postion that she could drink. So she leans onto his shoulder and he reached out for the water. It took her some time to swallow everything down and closed her eyes again as far as she was done. Rohan lay her down against the pillow. Suddenly he feels something pulling his shirt and noticed her hand, trying to grab him. „ I am here" he whispers and lay also down beside her, pulling the cover over them and took her hand. „ i always will" he adds one before he gave her a kiss on her hair . As she was fallen asleep again he watch her for a few minutes before he also close his eyes.

_Morning_

There was a knock, somewhere. Rohan wasn't sure. He carefully open his eyes and look at the door. „ Who's there?"

„ It's me Angus, are you guys alright?" a voice from outside answers.

Rohan look at his side, Deirdre was still sleeping on his arm. „ Come in" he answers and as Angus open the door he brings one finger to his mouth, pointing to be quiet. „ I guess we are fine" he looks at his best friend. Can you get Cathbad?"

„ Sure i will" Angus answers and leave, but looks back once more „ i told you she wouldn't want the baby being alone with us"

Rohan couldn't hold back a little grin as his best friend leave. As they were alone again, he slowly trys to free his arm. In that moment Deirdre starts to wake up. She slowly lift up her head, watching at him. Her eyes are still a bit tired, but not like last night.

„ Hey, how do you feel?" Rohan turns arround, resting his head next to hers and place his hand on her arm.

„ Like i had fight all the monsters from Maeve at one day" she mumbles „ where is our daugther?"

„ I will get her as soon as Cathbad has checked your fever" Rohan whisper sback and start rubbing her arm. Both look at each other, knowing that this could have been gone another way.

They look up as they hear footsteps from the corridor. „ Deirdre, my princess, how do you feeling?" Cathbad enters the room. Obviously glad to see her awake.

„ Exhausted" Deirdre answers and trys to sit up so that the druid could check on her.

„ Hey hey, slowly" Rohan looks at her and place his hands on her shoulder to support her. „ Just because you feel a bit better, doesn't mean you are better"

„ mh, i guess i know where i got his from" she smile weakly at him, not showing that she is really doing hard to move and thankful for his supprt.

Cathbad sit down next to the princess to check on her. „ The fever is better, if you want to you can see the baby now. But please be careful and you need to stay in bed this week" he exchange a look with Rohan, who stand up with a grin and leave the room.

„ Thanks Cathbad, for everything. „ Deirdre looks at the old man, while he is checking her forehead and then walk at the end of the bed to check on the stitches.

„ oh no worries princess. I am just glad you are feeling better now" he answers. Fine with his work he comes back to her and in the next moment they are hearing some voices from outside. Deirdre turns arround, but Cathbad place his hands on her shoulders and pull her back into the pillows, a warning look in his eyes. Deirdre meet his eyes and nod.

The door opens and she spots Rohan, Ivar, Angus and Garrett. All of them are smiling and forming a little way, as her father appears in the doors, a little bundle in his arms. He smiles also at her and sit down in bed next to his daugther. „ She is stunning. I guess i can't be a prouder king then just right now. And how are you?"

„ Thanks father, i guess i will be fine soon" Deirdre looks at him and her daughter with a weak smile

„ When you stay in bed like Cathbad had ordered" Rohan looks at his wife before he goes to the other side oft he bed, sitting down next to her and place one hand on hers.

„ Of course i will, do you thinking i would let her alone just with you guys" she teased before she looks back at the little face in the bundle.

„ My telling" Angus laugh and the others join in.


End file.
